This is a ongoing ( non- commercial *) ) project that started about 2009 and is called the ( close ) Encounters.

The HDRI ( High Dynamic Range Images ) panorama portrait panorama’s are made out of 63 pictures (minimal 9 exposures per angle, 7 angles so 63 images are used to make a HDRI portret panorama.

That makes taking the image with some thrill — it could be ruined due to the fact that if the people are moving the portrait could fail. That idea makes it fascinating for me to do it, Its always exiting to shoot. Warn the "customers *) " in advance: “we will see in the final image who moved, so do not dare to move!” Until now ( almost ) everyone has listened very good in the portrait shoots from the last years.

After the shoot the most time consuming part starts: tonemapping, color correction & retouche. The actually shooting is done within 1 minute per pano, post production can take about 20 or 30 hours (or even more).

Never ask money *) for the portrets specially because not doing it on request every project is self initiated. People who appear on the images are free to do with the final version what do want only things ask is mention my name when it perhaps get published thats all. Asking money for it would ruin my motivation.

Update February 2019:

Last years the technical development of 360° camera’s ( so no need to shoot in several angles but just push the button once ) is going very quickly. More and more are entering the market and this is fantastic news. But have to be honest, for the ( close ) Encounters series not want to use such camera’s its just too easy. Its much more exciting if there is a bigger chance of failure. It reminds me also to the early days of ( portrait ) photography, people were told by the photographer “ please do not move”.

Previous Editions ( close ) Encounters

Note:

Due to the lack of time could only publish one ( close ) Encounters Part 3 & 14. Absolute my personal favorite one & next to that a pretty amazing background story behind it. The rest will appear later.

( close ) Encounters Part 1( close ) Encounters Part 2( close ) Encounters Part 3( close ) Encounters Part 4( close ) Encounters Part 5( close ) Encounters Part 6( close ) Encounters Part 7( close ) Encounters Part 8( close ) Encounters Part 9( close ) Encounters Part 10( close ) Encounters Part 11( close ) Encounters Part 12( close ) Encounters Part 13( close ) Encounters Part 14